By Shahina Begum 13Y

WHAT IS A THRILLER?

A thriller is a play, novel, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.

A thriller also consists of a protagonist and antagonist who are always in constant defeat with each other. It usually uses a lot of suspense, tension and excitement to build up their main part of the movie or book and when watching a thriller, the viewers emotions are stimulating in every sort of

way; feeling excited, shocked, exhilarated.

It includes a vast amount of sub genres, such as, psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, horror thrillers, supernatural, action thrillers etc.

The genre thriller is characterised by fast pacing, frequent action and resourceful heroes who must distinguish the plans of more-powerful and

better equipped villains. There are also literary devices such as suspense, cliff hangers and red herrings, which are used extensively.

DEFINITION OF A THRILLER

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A THRILLER Codes and

Conventions: Dramatic/Tension music Low cut lighting for suspense

Jump Cuts Editing

Diegetic loud heavy breathing A variety of different coloured

shots Changes in the angles of shots

Montage of shots Protagonist is in the mercy of

an antagonist

Ghosts

Blood

DeathViolence

Storms

Chase Sequences

Haunted house

Gore

Darkness

Villain

Evil monsters

Killing

Thriller

EnigmaFlashbacks

FlashbackFrights

CHARACTERS IN A THRILLER

Protagonists:This is the main character of the film , who is creating all the problems. However, the role displayed by the protagonist does become

downgraded.

Antagonists:This is the total opposite of the antagonist, where the antagonist is the hero in the end of the story. This is

the person who saves the other characters from harm or keeps away from death, demolishing the

antagonist.

EDITING, MISE EN SCENE AND SOUND

The editing used in thriller films is mainly

a number of jumps and quick cuts. This is mainly because these shots create a large amount of suspense and tension to the

audience viewing it, which is definitely

what the producers want the audiences to

feel.

In thriller movies, the sound/music is always upbeat or slow, to create pressure and to

tense up the audience. This

also can get the audience to think

about what could happen and put the in the characters

‘shoes’.

Usually in the movie, it starts

off with a normal scene and then just builds up to

the main dilemma or

wrong situation. The clothing

which is displayed is also normal, meaning

day-to-day clothing, people wearing casual.

THRILLER FILMS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQfkLmTCCQ